


Stories of the Second Self: Tuned to Nature

by John_Steiner



Series: Alter Idem [103]
Category: National Guard - Fandom, Urban Fantasy - Fandom
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-27 22:33:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22613362
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/John_Steiner/pseuds/John_Steiner
Summary: Still adjusting to home life after so long in active service, Jerrod Connor frequently disappears into wild places. Yet, in untamed country Jerrod hears a heavy crashing and thumps. Yet, Jerrod is surprised by the appearance of a unicorn in a clearing. Then, Jerrod realizes that the giant National Guard intelligence officer, Paul Appelbaum has also happened upon the remote wild space. Jerrod and Paul talk about all they've seen while pondering the mythic creature before them.
Series: Alter Idem [103]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1618813





	Stories of the Second Self: Tuned to Nature

A few months after Jerrod was released from active service in the Guard he still had trouble adjusting. Dealing with Michael's street pack ties and Pentacaste registration helped, but there were times when Jerrod needed distance even from that. Often, it meant getting out of the house and out of town.

What with people across the state struggling to rebuild their lives, fewer of them took time to appreciate nature untamed. That suited Jerrod just fine, as he got into his work clothes, changed over to his therianthropic phase, and just bounded on all fours.

On the way through fields, Jerrod noticed people pointing out his gray, brown, black form running through dense growth or open ground. After over two years of Alter Idem, people knew better than to just shoot at what they might've taken to be regular wolves without direct reprisal.

Several minutes after he bounded past the last house, Jerrod entered unkempt country. In mid-April, green had returned, but a fading chill still lingered. Yet, it was one Jerrod easily shrugged off, as he trounced through undergrowth and across streams.

Sporadic animals spotted him and gave a wary distance, though Jerrod noticed enough abundance that he could tell animals were doing well amid the withdraw of people from much of the world. As a halfway crossover to being wild himself, Jerrod was largely accepted as part of the landscape. He heard and saw animals at shorter distances than when he used to camp out as a human kid. His heightened senses brought nature closer still.

Jerrod came to a larger stream where branches piled up, and he sat on his haunches. The reason for him choosing work clothes was for grass stains and dirt he'd inevitably accumulate. His lupine tail wagged slowly more toward the right, reflecting how relaxed and soothed he was being away from a busier world.

Then came a heavy tromp and an accompanying crack of a sizeable branch. Jerrod stiffened up and sniffed at the air with his ears perked up. He was reminded of a horror movie involving Norse myths in some forgotten stretch of woods in Norway or someplace.

Yet, what popped into view wasn't from the same direction as the sound. In fact the white fur that shifted with the pace of front and rear legs gave to Jerrod an outline of something fairly lightweight. That contrasted with the heavy steps he still heard, but the mist obscured some details of the animal Jerrod watched.

Rising up onto just his digitigrade feet, Jerrod then noticed the head that was something of a cross between a goat and a small but well-muscled horse with intense blue eyes. The tail that made casual swishes clearly didn't belong to either animal, as it was long and cat-like under all the hair. It noticed Jerrod in turn, and turned to look at him head on.

Resisting the urge to hunker down into a stalking stance, Jerrod clamped his jaw shut on seeing the spiraling horn projecting up from its forehead. One of Jerrod's ears turned sideways in bewilderment, and then his unconsciously cocked his head.

"Y'ou're sh'hittin' ne," Jerrod clumsily exclaimed from his wolf mouth.

"Ouch, son of a bitch," hissed a deep-chested baritone voice from the direction of the weighty steps.

The unicorn looked over to the source when Jerrod did, and then a giant wearing outdoor clothes and a light jacket trounced massively into view. Jerrod thought he looked familiar, but his prior experience made him wary of giants just out and away from the civilized world.

Despite facing two physically dangerous people, the unicorn seemed unafraid, and just traded head turns between Jerrod and the giant.

Following the unicorn's attention, the giant noticed Jerrod. "Well, this is interesting."

Jerrod watched, as the giant fished out a tablet that he used like a cell phone to snap images of the unicorn. Then, he decided he wanted a better look also, so Jerrod picked his steps across the stream brought still by the jam of branches. He and the giant, whose face Jerrod couldn't place, looked at each other as Jerrod edged closer to the unicorn.

"I don't know if you should do that," the giant said, and returned to taking more photos.

"Why?" Jerrod was able to articulate with his canine muzzle and tongue.

"You seem familiar," the giant added, "Though, I can't be sure."

"I'll kee'f zh'is quiet," Jerrod struggled to say.

That nerve-wrenching sound of muscles binding like leather and his bones cracking into their primary configuration accompanied Jerrod's shifting back to his human shape. Fur retreated entirely, most hair likewise receded, and his wolf tail shrunk back into an internalized tailbone.

Standing back up, Jerrod ensured his claws retracted to be replaced by finger and toes nails. Other features completed the transformation, while Jerrod strode barefoot over the green and brown of uneven ground. Even as a man, Jerrod needn't worry about his feet being made tough as a werewolf. His shoes were still tied to belt loops on the sides of his hips.

"Hey," the giant pointed in recognition. "I remember you from Columbus."

"Yeah, Corporal Jerrod Conner," he answered, "Weren't you an intel guy?"

"Used to be," the giant said, "Paul Appelbaum, formerly a captain."

"Oh yeah, Special Information Group," Jerrod recalled, as the ruins of Columbus, Ohio rushed back to the fore of his memory, and then waved at the unfazed unicorn. "You guys dealt with all the magic crap, right? Still mess with that?"

"Often," Paul replied, "In fact, I travel and do lectures about it."

"Yeah, I just got into construction when things more or less settled down," Jerrod said, "Since when did we have unicorns?"

"You're not even surprised?" Paul, the giant asked, and switched his tablet to recording video.

"All surprised out, really," Jerrod said, and hunkered down to stare at the one-horned animal of snow-white coat. "Did you ever figure out what the deal was in Columbus?"

"This, for one," Paul said, and indicated the unicorn. "Found one just like it in a magic-grown tunnel under a parking garage. Or, maybe, this is the same one. Can't tell."

"Why doesn't it run from us?" Jerrod wondered, and rested his chin on folded arms.

"Not being a biologist," Paul prefaced to his speculation, "but if they're new to the world they wouldn't have yet developed a reason to fear people. Or maybe it's able to protect itself that well."

"Aren't they supposed to be magical?" Jerrod asked.

"I think this one is," Paul answered, "I get that same vibe I did with the first one. Though, I think it's still an animal in mind. No knowledge of good and evil, as it were."

Jerrod heard something more in the way Paul said that, and asked him about it. "You're religious, aren't you?"

"Jewish, yeah," Paul replied. "You?"

"Hmm, kinda, I guess," Jerrod said, though inwardly he wasn't sure if he could conform to any denomination anymore, and then had a thought. "Hey, that suburb we air-dropped into. What were you after? And don't just say some 'asset.'"

"It doesn't hurt to say now." Paul turned off the tablet and pocketed it. "It was a gift of some sort. I don't suppose you're familiar with the Kabbala."

"No, I don't know what that is," Jerrod confessed.

"It's a more mystic way of looking at Judaism," Paul explained, "And, after coming across that oddly lit tree, I realized I could do things that were beyond me before."

"Like spells?" Jerrod asked.

"In a matter of speaking," Paul answered, and then chuckled. "In fact, speaking is the point. We're taught that certain words have power when spoken aloud. It's a concept called Abracadabra."

Jerrod laughed at that. "Is that where stage magicians get it from?"

"It is, indeed," Paul affirmed, and then straightened up as he stared at the animal.

Jerrod turned to see the unicorn taking bold slow steps toward him. Being a werewolf, Jerrod felt himself overcome with pack etiquette and remained still in his crouch. He kept his gaze affixed forward, as the unicorn stepped to one side. It sniffed at his ear and then butted the top of its nose against Jerrod's cheek.

"I'll be damned," Paul remarked, "You, a predator, and it's taken a liking to you. And none of the sacred text of my faith have anything to say about that."

"What do you mean?" Jerrod said just over a whisper, as the unicorn continued to nose at and eyeball him up close.

"Unicorn is a translation foul up from the Torah to the King James Bible," Paul revealed, "That's not quite what the original Hebrew characters refer to. Unicorn is out of Mesopotamia and, more so, from the ancient Greek pantheon belief system. Later centuries attribute it as being drawn to innocence, maidens in particular."

"No, seriously, what're you tryin' to imply?" Jerrod cracked with a smirk.

"Whatever god awful experiences you went through in the occupation days," Paul laid out plainly, "It apparently hasn't taken away the fact that you're a good person underneath."

With that, the unicorn turned toward Paul, as he shuffled over, and it let the giant run his huge hand on its side. Jerrod rose up and stepped over to brush the coat of its neck with an easy slow palm.

Jerrod leaned over to glance low before rising back up and offering soothing words. "Atta boy. Yeah, you're a friendly guy aren'cha."

"Well, that settles it," Paul observed, still gently stroking the unicorn and adding, "There's definitely more than one out there."

"Why?" Jerrod wondered, as he patted the unicorn's muzzle.

"The one I saw in Columbus was female," Paul answered, "There was a lot of weird things down there. Fairy-shaped fireflies, for instance."

"Okay, that is weird," Jerrod admitted, having a hard time picturing what such a thing looked like.

"They give off daylight," Paul revealed, "Remember that if you see one and want to catch it."

"I'm a werewolf, not a vampire," Jerrod reminded.

"It means they might be hot to the touch," Paul clarified, and then pulled his hand back to work his fingers. "You won't believe how much power I'm sensing in him."

The unicorn cast both his eyes directly into Jerrod's and his found himself too fascinated by the animal's interest to look away or talk. His lupine side keyed him to an intention from the unicorn he struggled to find words for. Yet, he felt that he made more than just a friend with this magnificent wanderer of the wild.


End file.
